Mt Taranaki

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From Wellington I was to move on and meet Doug (from Mt Aspiring) and we hoped to climb Mt Ruapehu and Mt Taranaki together.

On the way, I stopped in Taupo for the night where I met Heather again and did the pub quiz (like last time I was in Taupo) with a bunch off the Kiwi Experience bus. A great fun night.

I hoped to do a skydive too in Taupo, but the weather was not suitable.

I met Doug in National Park where we surveyed the miserable weather forecast for the next few days. We had six days together and two heavy fronts were predicted to come in that time. Not promising. However, next morning we drove to the Whakapapa ski field car park to take an optimistic look at Mt Ruapehu. We could see only the bottom of the chairlift cables and did not even leave the car. The weather was properly dire and not suitable for a Peak District stroll never mind a 2500m volcano. We were keen to climb Mt Ruapehu to look at the crater lake after the lahar of a few weeks before. (This is where fallen rocks create a natural dam, creating a lake. A lahar is when the dam collapses, emptying the lake.

So onto Egmont/Taranaki national park where we stayed in a crazy bicycle-themed backpackers called The Missing Leg (which I highly recommend) and next day into the national park to wander between lower huts until the weather improved. We stayed at the Waingongoro hut and then headed up to the Syme hut at 2000m. The last two hours were serious conditions with an unbalancingly strong wind, lots of sleet and 10m invisibility. Iceaxes were required as the ground (and drop) steepened as we neared the hut. We both whooped with joy when we finally saw it!

Once inside, we got a cup of tea on quickly as I was very cold. There was no heating in the hut and I think it must have been below freezing. The wind was ferocious and we spent the whole of the next day (Sunday) in our sleeping bags. My thermometer measured a temperature of 3oC rising to a balmy 5oC in the afternoon. We phoned through for a forecast for Monday which was now also terrible. However, the cloud did clear at 21:30 Sunday night and so we optimistically got up early on Monday morning. The sky above us was clear and Mt Taranaki stood majestically above us. We would get up it after all!

The route was 600m (vertically) up 45o ice slopes. The ice had frozen into tooth-shapes of varying sizes. The tooth direction indicated the prevailing wind direction. The ice had only recently frozen and was very brittle, but the climbing was easy and really enjoyable. Every now and again, the cloud would blow in over us, but would then clear again and the sun would come out. Even without a view, the summit was really interesting. There are a number of peaks including the appropriately named Sharks Tooth. An fairly easy descent down a snow slope and 4WD track returned us to civilisation and the car. We drove for 5 hours to Doug's family home in Auckland and they showed me top rate hospitality including an excellent dinner, shower and bed for the night.

We'd beaten the weather and had a good trip after all!

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Photos

Mt Taranaki
Mt Taranaki

Mt Taranaki Summit
Doug and I on the summit of Mt Taranaki

Comments

[dad]

thats not the summit!
I suppose the camera crew couldn't step back far enough if you stood on the top! Is the volcano crater behind you? What strange wooly snow/ice. Like frozen wooly clouds. It looks cold.

[Daniel Callinan]

thats not the summit!
Actually it is! There´s a summit plateau with several peaks around the edges. This one was the highest and therefore must be called the summit. It also serves as a a handy windbreak.